Tuck: Don’t Take Offense

I love offense. I think scoring is cool. But when it reaches a point that it is so easy, it isn’t as fun or exciting. It’s actually kind of disturbing.

There is something just not right about the following:

Scoring 63 points and losing.

Scoring 70 points and not covering an 11-point spread.

Catching 13 passes, and only being tied for the third most in the receptions in the game. (17-14-13-13)

Having 303 yards receiving and it not being the most in the game. Needed 317 for that.

WR Stedman Bailey set the Big XII record for receiving yards with 303, and got passed by Terrance Williams for the record in the same game.

Six WR had over 100 yards, one over 200, and two over 300.

West Virginia setting a passing record and Baylor setting one too, the year after RG3 left for the NFL. Hello Nick Florence.

Scoring 19 TD in 60 minutes. That did tie the record for most TD in a game, but fell 3 points short of the I-A record. Of course they missed 3 field goals in the game.

Picking up 67 first downs in 60 minutes and somehow they had time to punt 4 times?

And that was just the West Virginia-Baylor game!

Miami QB Stephen Morris broke not just Miami passing records, but ACC passing records against NC State with 566 yards. Good thing he doesn’t play in the Big XII. Heck, that 566 was good for only 3rd most in the NOON GAMES!

Even the SEC wasn’t immune to this plague. Georgia and Tennessee were running up and down the field combining for 95 points, the 5th most between SEC teams in history. Arkansas gave up 58 points to Texas A&M. I thought they played defense in that conference? Is nothing sacred?

I could go on, but you get the idea. It is kind of like baseball having SEVEN no-hitters this year. Yes, I love the drama of a no-hitter. It is one of the coolest impromptu events in all of sports. But when you are flooded with seven of them in one year, (Background: there were 7 no-hitters from 2000-2005) it takes away from the excitement. How many of you know who threw the no-hitter this weekend? (Homer Bailey, CIN) How many of you even knew that there was one?!?!

Same goes for all these passing and scoring records. I am getting numb, and losing interest. It’s not as special.

Would I rather watch 70-63 than 10-7? Yes. But when the defenses are giving up yards like the offensive players have chicken pox and they are afraid to touch them, that is a problem and hard to watch.

UNBEATEN COUNT: Down to 23 left with UTSA the most surprising. Larry Coker getting it done. At least 3 will drop from that list this week, with Georgia @ South Carolina, LSU @ Florida, and West Virginia @ Texas.

– My complaining is about to shift from preseason polls carrying too much weight with voters to them not paying attention to head-2-head wins when ranking. Seems simple enough, right. You beat someone, you should be ranked ahead of them. But these blithering morons in both the AP and Coach’s Poll have USC ahead of Stanford, Stanford ahead of Washington, and Nebraska ahead of UCLA. When the win-loss records are the same I don’t know how you justify ranking a team ahead of one it lost to. Later on in the season there can be other factors to weigh, but at this point it is simply unacceptable.

– Just thought about this with FSU playing it’s first road game of the season. The Seminoles only leave the state of Florida 3 times all year!

STIFF-ARMING TROPHY RACE

I think it is safe to say Geno Smith is a strong candidate. He is completing 83.4% of his passes, for over 1700 yards and 20-0 TD-INT ratio. I hate QB passer ratings, but his is at 208.4, a year after Russell Wilson (191.8) and Robert Griffin III (189.5) both broke the record set in 2006 by Colt Brennan (186). In 2010 Kellen Moore (182.4) and Cam Newton (182) and 180.8 by Sam Bradford in 2008 all were over 180, the only 6 times it has ever been done. When a record is getting broken every year or challenged, it isn’t much fun.